Old House Vineyards is the Nelson wine venture realisation of Ian Bathgate and his wife Jeanne and two sons from the U.K. Ian has been a long-time wine enthusiast, having collected wine from the age of 18 y.o. Three years ago Ian sold up his family business in plastics and Jeanne retired as a pilot to come to New Zealand to buy a vineyard. They purchased from Spencer Hill a vineyard established in 2000 on Old House Road in Upper Moutere. There are around 17 ha of vines, half planted to Sauvignon Blanc and the remainder in approximately equal parts to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Pinot Noir clones are now 113, 114, 115, 667 and 777, having removed 2 ha of Mariafeld clone, to replace it with Pinot Gris.
The Bathgates have put in considerable work to revitalise the vineyard and have Ewen Martin, formerly with Neudorf and Spencer Hill as their viticulturist. They have had Neil Todd of Kahurangi Estate making the Sauvignon Blanc wines and Patrick Stowe of Rimu Grove making the Pinot Noir wines to date. A 2017 Chardonnay wine is in the works to be released later this year, Here, I review the new release 2017 Sauvignon Blanc and ‘Kaho’ oak-fermented Sauvignon Blanc, and 2016 Pinot Noir. For availability, contact the Bathgates on email: [email protected]
